LRS, a leading soft drinks manufacturer in the UK and Ireland, collaborated with ECEX to produce a solution specific to the requirements of a factory located in a forest environment. Pollen, leaves and dust can impact operations when deposited on filters as well as heating and cooling coils, significantly increasing energy consumption due to reduced airflow, decreased heat exchanger efficiency and reduced HVAC system capacity.

The cost of repairs can be high and air inflows require constant cleaning and maintenance to ensure optimum airflow and energy performance in line with LRS' rigorous quality standards.

During their assessment of LRS's factory site, ECEX experts noted that, despite regular, labour intensive, maintenance and cleaning, the cooling tower air inlets were still suffering from a significant reduction in airflow and air handling systems were working unduly hard. Airflow reduction was resulting in wasted energy, additional strain being placed on factory systems and increased maintenance requirements.

ECEX's solution was to fit four Air Intake Screens to the supply air intakes, replacing existing banks of pre-filter media in-front of the intake louvres to reduce clogging from dust, and a further two Air Intake Screens installed on the cooling towers to prevent fans and pumps being affected by leaves, pollen and dust.

The results have been savings on filter changing costs and a dramatic reduction in energy consumption. Significant improvements for the cooling towers will be achieved by reduced maintenance time and the towers no longer needing to be stripped down to clean the internal components.

Gary Burford, Energy and Sustainability Manager at Lucozade Ribena Suntory, said: "We're fortunate to have a factory in the beautiful Forest of Dean, but the location does bring its own unique challenges. Lucozade Ribena Suntory has an ambition to work in harmony with people and nature, to create positive change. Our partnership with ECEX has supported this ambition and with their help we have been able to identify areas for operational improvement, supporting us in our drive toward becoming an even more efficient business."

John Grenville, Managing Director at ECEX, said: "ECEX Air Intake Screens are the ideal choice for this type of project, in this case preventing nature's debris from affecting operational efficiency of HVAC equipment. We are delighted to have worked with Lucozade Ribena Suntory to reduce energy consumption for the factory - our screens offer a simple but extremely effective solution, cutting maintenance times as well as contributing to carbon reduction; a win-win situation."

www.airintakescreens.co.uk